1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of musical drums and, more particularly, to an improved device that produces and significantly clearer and more concise snare sound coupled with a resonant bass tone. The improved device also enables the convenient and quick removal of a snare assembly from inside the drum's resonant chamber for repair and replacement.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Percussion instruments comprise a wide variety of musical devices well-known in the prior art, including, but not limited to, drums having one or more membranes called drumheads stretched over the end or ends of a hollow cylinder or shell. Sounds are produced by striking the drumhead with a stick, mallet, brush or even the player's hand, or any portion thereof. The sound produced by a drum depends on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the shape, size and thickness of the shell, materials from which the shell is fabricated, the material comprising the drumhead and the tensioning of the drumhead.
A typical percussive grouping used by bands and orchestras of all types is the common drumset usually comprised of a bass drum, snare drum, tom-tom and cymbals or any combination of these, most supported by metal stands. Also included with these drumsets are pedals to manipulate the cymbals and a mallet or the like for striking the bass drum. A seat or, in the common parlance of the field, a throne, is also provided.
One musical drum not typically part of a conventional drumset is an instrument commonly known as a cajon, which is a box or cuboid shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru. Because of its ability to produce a multitude of drum sounds by striking one or more sides of the instrument and its portability, the cajon has grown in popularity and can easily, and often does, provide a viable and more cost effective alternative to the drumset.
A typical cajon has a resonant chamber fashioned from a plurality of panels with a vent opening or port formed usually in the back panel for producing bass tones. Within the resonant chamber, attached as an option to the inside surface of the front-facing strike plate or secured adjacent to the inside surface, are metal strings or snares used to produce a snare sound when the front plate is struck. The cajon panels or walls, because they are relatively thin, operate as vibrating membranes serving the same relative function as a conventional drumhead. Striking a cajon panel or strike plate in different places, e.g. at the corners, the high or low sections, the central portion, etc., can thus produce a variety of different and extremely unique and pleasing percussive sounds.
The top panel of a cajon provides a seat for the player to sit upon while striking the instrument. To play the cajon, the player may use his or her hands, fingers, palms, knuckles and fingernails to produce a multitude of sounds. Mallets, brushes and sticks or any other suitable resilient or hard object may also be used for this purpose.
The cajon combines the ability to produce the two most basic drumset sounds in music (i.e. bass and snare) into one instrument. Thus, most issues involved in the playing of a cajon, a single musical instrument, regard chiefly the production of distinct bass and snare sounds, which typically are within the higher frequency range for the bass sounds and the lower frequency range for the snare sounds. These include, among others, the ability to fine tune the snares for a particular kind of music and to achieve the proper balance of bass-to-snare ratio. To accomplish this, the trade-offs are abundant, including the use of expensive snare wires and their oftentimes complicated assemblies. Expensive snare assemblies usually require some type of threaded fastener to create tension in the snare wire with the goal of creating less deflection and producing a more precise sound needed for fast musical passages or stylistic changes. The problem most associated with these types of snare assemblies, aside from the expense, is that the wires normally do not establish the requisite positive continuous contact with the top or bottom portions of the chamber wall or, more specifically, inside surface of the strike plate with which they must interact. Contact limited only to the mid-section, the upper or lower half, or only the very top or bottom of the inside wall is insufficient. Thus, to achieve the desired snare sound where there is no direct contact between the snare wires and the inside wall surface, as aforesaid, the player must alter his or her technique by striking those specific locations with greater force. Unfortunately, this technique introduces undesirable bass tones.
Another trade off is having to incorporate tension screws and similar hardware, which can be complex and otherwise problematic, and result in diminished and distorted sound quality. Resonating musical instruments that include a chamber body will simply not freely resonate and produce the most desirable sounds if assembled with metal screws or any other items, complicated or not, with a metallic composition.
An additional trade-off regards the necessity to remove a portion or even an entire panel from the resonant chamber to access the interior for removal or replacement of all or any portion of the snare assembly.
Many of the advances in cajon technology are disclosed in the following prior art:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,482,522 B2 issued Jan. 27, 2009 to Wening discloses a cajon incorporating a snare carpet that rests against the inside surface of the front panel with the snare carpet actuated by a pedal. Striking the front panel causes the panel to vibrate which, in turn, causes the snare carpet to produce a characteristic snare sound.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,485,790 B2 issued Feb. 3, 2009 to Payerl teaches a cajon made of wooden plates incorporating an apparatus inside the resonant chamber consisting of wires mounted recessed along the chamber's bottom and strung in a predetermined arrangement along with associated damping elements for producing sound effects when any of the wooden plates is struck by an object.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,692,083 B2 issued Apr. 6, 2010 to Aspland teaches a cajon or box drum including a plurality of internal snares which can be compelled to contact one or more of the interior surfaces of the striking plates to produce appropriate snare sounds when the cajon is struck. A bass drum stick or mallet may also be installed inside the resonant chamber for use by the player in selectively striking the instrument to produce unique sounds. An external device, such as a pedal, suitable for operating the bass drum stick may also be provided.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,816,596 B2 issued Oct. 19, 2010 to Bottger teaches a cajon with improvements that include, among others, a strike plate that projects beyond a recess in the housing, a corner enhancement attached to the strike plate as a freely vibrating corner, in one example, consisting of a block and at least one corner structurally separated from the strike plate and attached to a support rail that can cause the corner to vibrate.
However, nothing in the prior art includes the improvement of the present invention, which combines a uniquely constructed releasably retained snare assembly inside the resonant chamber of a musical instrument, in this example, a cajon, with means disposed cooperatively to vertically stretch the snare wires substantially taut in continuous contact relation with the inside surface of the strike plate to produce a significantly clearer and more concise snare sound coupled with a desirable resonant bass tone.